Gordon Brown yesterday pinned hopes of reviving his premiership on a package of measures designed to tackle the economic crisis, including a drive for tighter international controls of the global money markets and a crackdown on the culture of irresponsible City bonuses.

However, the prime minister also paved the way for higher levels of public borrowing, in breach of the Treasury's own rules, following the tumult on world markets last week.

In his speech to the Labour party conference today, the chancellor, Alistair Darling, will promise to do "whatever it takes" to rectify the mistakes made by the markets, but he will make clear: "Just as one government alone cannot combat global terrorism, just as one government alone cannot combat climate change, so one government alone cannot deal with the consequences of globalisation."

Brown's plan includes:

· A stronger international regulatory system, based around an early-warning system run by the IMF, which he will set out when he goes to New York at the end of this week.

· Tighter control of "irresponsible" city bonuses.

· A regime of stronger intervention in the City, under the new chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Lord Adair Turner. Turner warned yesterday: "What has gone wrong with the world's financial system is not just a few minor things and it can't be tidied up by a little more disclosure or transparency."

But the prime minister also signalled that the financial crisis means Britain's debts will go higher, insisting: "It is right to borrow at the moment. Those people who say we should be cutting public expenditure and cutting investment at the moment are wrong. In these unique circumstances, it is right to borrow and raise public expenditure."

Brown and Darling will travel to Europe and the US over the next few weeks, aiming to create an international consensus for a tougher global system of regulation. Brown's aides predicted previous US and Asian resistance to his ideas would fold in face of the crisis that created near meltdown in the markets last week and has seen the US put in place a $700bn rescue package to purge the "toxic" debts held by banks around the world.

Brown's team insist they are not "ambulance-chasing" the global crisis, but recognise that it is the single world event that can play to Brown's political strengths and allow them to mark out substantially different territory by advancing the case for a strong interventionist state, to which the Tories do not subscribe.

Fending off continuing calls to quit from within his own ranks at party conference, Brown promised action on City bonuses, saying: "I think there is an element of the bonus system that is unacceptable," and questioning rewards for short-term deals with no regard to long-term performance.

Brown said many people had failed to "price risk properly", but the City now recognised that there would have to be changes in its culture and regulation.

Darling will use his speech to conference today to say: "I can promise you that whatever weaknesses are found in the financial system I shall take steps to deal with them, but this is a global problem and it will take global solutions, not knee-jerk reactions, but a measured response."

Brown and Darling are also coming under intense pressure from ministers, MPs and trade unionists to take populist measures to clamp down on executive bonuses, or to offer a middle-class tax cut funded by a new 45% rate of tax on those earning more than £175,000 a year.

Explicitly offering himself as the man with a special wisdom and experience to guide Britain through this crisis, Brown insisted he remained pro-market and pro-enterprise. But he disclosed he will be resubmitting proposals on international regulation when he lobbies world leaders in New York on Thursday at the UN general assembly.

Brown wants an enhanced role for the International Monetary Fund so that it provides a better early warning system of looming crises, better cooperation between regulators and more effective cross-border regulation of multinational finance. Britain also backs calls for an International College of Regulators and reform of credit rating agencies, heavily criticised for their part in the meltdown.

Brown told the BBC: "I think what people haven't appreciated is we've now got global financial systems but we've only got national regulators to cover them. And I've been pressing for some years, and I wish I could have persuaded other countries to do what I wanted, and that was to create a global system of financial regulation."

Turning to Britain's debts, Brown claimed: "In the last 10 years we have reduced the share of the national debt from 44% to 37% so we are in a position to borrow, because of our good housekeeping, to take us through difficult times.

"Other countries are not in such a privileged position. Other countries will be running up deficits, because it is right to borrow at this time."

Shadow chancellor George Osborne challenged Brown's claim to have reduced the overall level of national debt since Labour came to power in 1997. According to Office for National Statistics figures, net debt now stands at 43.3% of GDP, compared to 43.2% in May 1997, he said, adding: "Gordon Brown's interview shows he is increasingly becoming a stranger from the political and economic truth."

The fiscal crisis has dampened the simmering rebellion within Labour ranks, even though one cabinet minister said: "Most MPs are in state of unrestrained panic at the scale of the Tory lead."

Brown has also told colleagues he has not yet finally settled on a cabinet level reshuffle in the next 14 days, fearing it could be a flashpoint for a rebellion.

Explainer: Brown's battle for reform

Gordon Brown has already made two speeches on the need for reform of the global financial architecture this year: in New Delhi in January, and in Boston in April. He said yesterday he would use a visit to the United Nations in New York later this week to seek further regulation of financial markets.

The prime minister wants to a beefed-up role for the IMF so it provides a better early-warning system of looming crises, and better cooperation between regulators, leading to more effective cross-border regulation of multinational finance. It makes sense, according to Downing Street, that regulators share information. Britain backs calls for an International College of Regulators.

There has also been considerable European support for reform of credit ratings agencies, heavily criticised for their part in causing the meltdown. The agencies were paid by banks and other institutions to rate the complex financial derivatives market - now viewed as a dangerous conflict of interest. One option is to set up a multilateral body, funded by governments, to provide independent rating of financial products.

The UK has had no trouble finding supporters in Europe for these ideas. Brown has spoken to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and José Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission, on the need for global action, and they are in broad agreement on the need for reform. The problem has been the US; after last week, there is the sense Washington is much more willing to act.